First of all Norwood Teague is an awesome name, you don't have a name like that without being someone important. Also, don't you think it's kind of strange that we hired a guy from a school with no football program?

First of all Norwood Teague is an awesome name, you don't have a name like that without being someone important. Also, don't you think it's kind of strange that we hired a guy from a school with no football program?

Of all the love stories ever told, there may be none purer than the Big Ten's undying devotion, commitment and pure heart-throbbing lust to the Rose Bowl.
True love always. Best friends forever. A Romeo and Juliet for the modern ages, complete with suicidal second-guessing because a rose by any other name apparently wouldn't smell as sweet.

Big Ten players and fans can forget seeing a playoff game in their stadium, or even in the Midwest (Getty Imag …
It's wrong to criticize someone for who they choose to love.
Instead, just marvel at the depth of the relationship. The Big Ten has abandoned its smart, savvy push for a playoff that featured on-campus semifinal sites and a title game open to bid by cities across the country, including the Midwest, because it just couldn't bear the thought of cheating on a bowl game.
There are still details to be hashed out on how college football is going to stage its postseason. There are still plenty of sober voices out there who think outsourcing hundreds of millions in postseason games is at best illogical and at worst corrupt. Many more think playoff games on campus would be glorious.
But forget it.
If the Big Ten, which has the most to gain on the issue yet is trying to lose, then campus playoff games aren't happening. In an effort to help the Rose Bowl, the conference is willing for a playoff to also be staged in Miami Gardens and Glendale, and so on, rather than Columbus and Ann Arbor.
A playoff will be great no matter where the games are played. It'd just be better on campus. But the bowl lobby has won, and a select few of them are about to become even more fabulously wealthy off the labors of student-athletes. Leave it to the inevitable congressional investigation to sort out how the no-bid deals were reached.
At this point, it's still a romance novel because the Big Ten really, really loves the Rose Bowl … no, I love you more … text me when you wake up … no, you hang up first.
"For us it's critical to keep the Rose Bowl in the equation," Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis told reporters Tuesday after Big Ten meetings hashed out the conference's likely preferred plan.
How critical? Well, so critical that they're willing to make business decisions based on emotion, willing to give up on competitive advantages, logistical ease and monetary benefits.
Possible home-field advantage for Big Ten teams? We love the Rose Bowl.
Making the elements, which Big Ten teams are presumably better equipped to handle, a factor in the playoffs? We love the Rose Bowl.
Showcasing the incredible game-day environment of Camp Randall, Happy Valley or the Big House? We love the Rose Bowl.

Mark Hollis and his fellow ADs remain steadfast in their support for a broken bowl system. (AP)
Not requiring fans, students and players' families to continue to make lengthy postseason trips? We love the Rose Bowl.
Creating economic impact in the league's hometowns? We love the Rose Bowl.
Not taking discretionary spending out of the region and into California or Florida? We love the Rose Bowl.
Not playing games in opponents' home regions, states, cities or even stadiums? We love the Rose Bowl.
If you hate campus so much, how about compromising and staging neutral-site semifinal games in Indianapolis or Detroit, where the money would be so welcome? Sorry, we love the Rose Bowl.
Other than loving the Rose Bowl there isn't a single reason for the Big Ten to support this plan. Of course, what they love is what the Rose Bowl was (Big Ten champ vs. Pac-10 champ), which is not what it is or certainly will be. This is a playoff blueprint in sepia tones.
It's lunacy. But then again, love's crazy, right?
Somewhere Mike Slive of the SEC and Larry Scott of the Pac-12 are kicking back with a cackle of delight. These guys are angling for every possible edge while the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl sit in adjacent bathtubs, holding hands and waiting for the moment to be right.
Wait, the rest of college football has to be asking, you're not even going to fight and try to make us look like wimps for arguing against football in the cold?
Wait, you seriously are going to ask the same fan base to travel three times in a month – Big Ten title game, semifinals and championship game, the last two at least via airplane? And you think we won't end up with the majority of the crowd?
[Related: Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany doesn't think much of Alabama]
The Rose Bowl's power over the Big Ten is something to behold. It makes normally intelligent men say ridiculous things.
"It would be a competitive advantage to have semifinal games at home fields … but the bowls have been good to us," Nebraska AD Tom Osborne said.
If rampant profiteering, indictments charging corruption and millions in unnecessary expenses passed onto the schools counts as "been good to us" than the Big Ten may be the battered spouse here. Even so, exactly how good would a bowl have to have been to be better than a Nebraska playoff game in Memorial Stadium?
"If you took them out of the playoff, it would pretty much destroy the bowl system," Osborne said.
Ah, no, it wouldn't pretty much destroy the bowl system. In fact, it wouldn't destroy it at all.
But, hey, love is blind. So blind apparently that no one can be bothered to actually look at the financial statements and business models of how bowl games operate and realize that line is complete garbage.
"From kids' perspective, the bowl experience is the one thing they want to keep," Hollis argued.

The Big Ten is so committed to the Rose Bowl it ceded playoff venues to the SEC and Pac-12. (Getty Images)
Yes, the vaunted bowl experience must be protected for the players. It's cool. Bowls are fun. Except in the same meeting the Big Ten proposed moving bowl eligibility from 6-6 to 7-5, which means maybe half a dozen smaller bowls will, indeed, be destroyed and the experience of those players apparently isn't worth protecting.
If only those games were as loveable as the Rose Bowl.
[Wetzel podcast: Hammering out the playoff details]
The athletic directors talk about trying to maintain or improve the meaning of the regular season, but then they want to take out the incentive of home-field advantage so it really doesn't matter whether you finish first or fourth.
And do players really value the chance to engage in some pie-eating contest more than potentially getting any edge on winning the biggest game of their life, getting one more chance to run on the field of their own stadium or, even playing on the road in one of the nation's other spectacular campuses? Playing at Bryant-Denny, even as the road team, is also a pretty sweet experience.
And what about the chance for the Big Ten to finally stop playing games in SEC/Pac 12 country, maybe see if one of those sunshine programs can handle a few flakes of Midwest snow? Yes, it sure sounds good, but did they mention they love the Rose Bowl?
"There's a part of me that wants to play a team from the Southwest or the Southeast in five-degree weather," Ohio State's Gene Smith told the Sporting News. "But is it really right for the game?"
The NFL thinks all weather is football weather and adheres to the crazy idea of playing games in places like Lambeau and Solider Fields.
If only they had something like a Rose Bowl to love. Then Roger Goodell would immediately get smart and try to move the NFC title game to the Alamodome or something.
There's no question Big Ten fans love the Rose Bowl, although not as much as they once did. They also like to win, also would like to shut the SEC up and also really like showing off their legendary stadiums and great cities, fighting against the idea that they live in some inhospitable, rusted-out region.
Plenty of them could use the economic impact of staging these massive events in the Midwest too. But you can't put a price on love.
And all these years later, that old Rose Bowl sure can cause the Big Ten's heart to flutter. Kind of like Juliet once did.

“Over the last two years he was there,” one former player said, “the players had taken complete control of the team.”

Quote:

Now those issues have surfaced for all to see. Left in the wake of Meyer’s resignation were problems that can destroy a coaching career: drug use among players, a philosophy of preferential treatment for certain players, a sense of entitlement among all players and roster management by scholarship manipulation.

Quote:

Ironically, Florida’s downfall began at the height of Meyer’s success—the 2008 national championship season. Three seasons of enabling and pandering to elite players—what Meyer’s players called his “Circle of Trust”—began to tear away at what he’d put together.

“I’ve never heard of Circle of Trust before in my life,” Meyer said.

Former players, though, contend it was the foundation of Florida’s culture under Meyer. In the season opener against Hawaii, Meyer said a few elite players (including wideout Percy Harvin, linebacker Brandon Spikes and tight end Aaron Hernandez) would miss the game with injuries. According to multiple sources, the three players—all critical factors in Florida’s rise under Meyer—failed drug tests for marijuana and were sitting out as part of standard university punishment.

By publicly stating the three were injured and not being disciplined, former players say, Meyer was creating a divide between the haves and have-nots on the team.

Quote:

During offseason conditioning before the 2007 season, the team was running stadium steps and at one point, Harvin, according to sources, sat down and refused to run. When confronted by strength and conditioning coaches, Harvin—who failed to return calls and texts to his cell phone to comment on this story—said, “This (expletive) ends now.”

“The next day,” a former player said, “we were playing basketball as conditioning.”

It only got worse as Harvin’s career progressed. At one point during the 2008 season, multiple sources confirmed that Harvin, now a prominent member of the Minnesota Vikings, physically attacked wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him to the ground. Harvin had to be pulled off Gonzales by two assistant coaches—but was never disciplined.

Quote:

When he was dismissed from the team by Muschamp, Jenkins told the Orlando Sentinel: “If (Meyer) was still the coach at Florida, I’d still be there.”

This is the same Jenkins who, according to sources, walked out on Meyer’s postgame speech after the 2008 season opener and threatened to quit. Meyer not only brought Jenkins back without punishment, Jenkins eventually developed into a freshman All-American and played a big role in the team’s championship run.

Quote:

During the heat of recruiting season, another dust-up arose in Columbus. It was the “gentlemen’s agreement”—a loosely held ideal among Big Ten coaches about backing off verbally committed high school players—that got Meyer into a dicey moment.

Meyer and his staff got eight players to back off verbal commitments and sign with the Buckeyes, and a few Big Ten coaches—including Bielema and Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio—spoke about the understanding among league coaches at press conferences.

Quote:

The 6-6 regular season record was Florida’s worst since 1987. The “broken” program—Meyer’s words—had hit rock bottom.

“To put it all on a sense of entitlement or a few other things that happened, I disagree,” Meyer said. “It comes down to players.”

What kind of lame ass, late to the party, weak sauce troll is this? I thought you had a brain. So disappointed in you.

And, BTW, here are the "violations". The NCAA is ridiculous. And Gene Smith sucks at his job. He must have way too much dirt that hasn't seen the light of day for the school to fire him.

Quote:

Additional Information Regarding Ohio State

To clarify information and to be transparent with regard to information reported this morning about Ohio State athletics, no Ohio State athletics program is facing any major NCAA issues.

There are 12 secondary NCAA issues being processed by the athletics compliance office. These are similar to those released last week. All are secondary in nature and consistent with the department’s culture of self-reporting all issues.

Football – The compliance office approved the use of mini basketballs during a football winter conditioning workout.

Men’s Gymnastics – The practice activities of a gymnastics alum were publicized.

Institutional  Two baseball prospective student-athletes arrived on campus for official visits before being placed on the request list.

Institutional – Athletics financial aid agreements were issued to three prospective student-athletes without being signed by the financial aid director.

Football – A former assistant football coach had an inadvertent contact or “bump” with a prospective student-athlete.

Field Hockey – A former assistant coach sent an email to a prospective student-athlete believing that she was a 2013 high school graduate.

Men’s Tennis – A high school football coach and friend of the tennis program’s head coach stopped by the tennis training facility unannounced with an assistant coach and four prospective student-athletes during a dead period.

Baseball – A prospective student-athlete in grade 12 registered and showed up for an Ohio State camp for participants in grades 9-11 even though he was told he was not eligible to compete at the camp. A t-shirt was given to the individual to defuse the situation when he got upset that he couldn’t compete.

Baseball – A prospective student-athlete received a complimentary admission to a home baseball game during a dead period.

Women’s Hockey – A former assistant coach inadvertently sent an email to a 2014 prospective student-athlete when the prospect was mistakenly entered into the recruiting data base by the previous coaching staff as a 2013 graduate.

Football – The program understood the aunt of a prospective student-athlete was his legal guardian and provided food and lodging expenses to her for the official visit.

Football – An assistant coach inadvertently posted on the Facebook wall of a 2013 prospective student-athlete, believing at the time he was using the email inbox function of Facebook.

In an effort to administer an athletics program consistent with the values of the NCAA and the university, we have consistently led the Big Ten Conference in self-reports as we have the largest number of sports and student-athletes. Ohio State has 36 varsity sports, while the average number of sports offered by the remaining 11 Big Ten institutions is 22. In addition, athletics staff and coaches at Ohio State have embraced the culture of identifying (as required under NCAA rules) even the smallest violation, investigating the matter and educating those involved.

Comment from Big Ten Conference Associate Commissioner, Compliance, Chad Hawley to Ohio State’s compliance office: “We are not concerned about the quantity of violations. Division I athletics is a highly regulated environment with a self-reporting requirement. When it is clear that a violation has occurred, we expect our institutions to report the violation. Ohio State has a well-established practice of operating in this way.”

Really, all the new stuff is just minor stupid ****. On it's own, it would be "Oh, whoops, didn't realize we did this or was against the rules."

However, in light of the last year plus of violations and how OSU "handled" them, another list of violations is significant. On one hand, it's great that they are reporting these, but on the other, you have to ask at what point is this all considered lack of institutional control and the whole AD at OSU penalized or just cleaned out? With everything that's happened to the football program, how as an athletic director do you not make sure each and every one of your programs is spotless at least for the next year?

Really, all the new stuff is just minor stupid ****. On it's own, it would be "Oh, whoops, didn't realize we did this or was against the rules."

However, in light of the last year plus of violations and how OSU "handled" them, another list of violations is significant. On one hand, it's great that they are reporting these, but on the other, you have to ask at what point is this all considered lack of institutional control and the whole AD at OSU penalized or just cleaned out? With everything that's happened to the football program, how as an athletic director do you not make sure each and every one of your programs is spotless at least for the next year?

HOW IN THE **** CAN YOU MONITOR THOSE "VIOLATIONS"? It's ********.
Your argument is ********.

HOW IN THE **** CAN YOU MONITOR THOSE "VIOLATIONS"? It's ********.
Your argument is ********.

Tell every single coach, assistant coach, and any one gainfully employed by your department to
A. not give out free **** like a lunch and boarding to a family member of a recruit,
B. be 100% sure that when you are going to an event or contacting someone, that it is 100% legal and that the person you are contacting is not someone you shouldn't
C. learn how to use Facebook and email without being a barely functioning ******.
D. And finally, make sure all employees know the ******* rules of their sport. How the **** do you not know when recruiting dead periods are? Seriously? That coach should be fired for being a complete moron.

Seriously, if you are OSU's AD, after all the crap you have been through, tell your coaches that even the slightest dumbass choice or lack of paying attention on their part will result in a suspension or firing. It's not rocket science. It's obvious that OSU's athletic department isn't taking things seriously still. Are these issues that happen everywhere? Yes, I'm sure. But when you are in OSU's position, you do everything you can to make sure your ass is water tight and all this dumbshit is kept to a minimum. 46 violations? That's ridiculous for an AD that should be doing everything above and beyond what most schools' ADs are doing.

I'm not faulting OSU as a whole for these violations, because they happen. But Smith is obviously completely inept either because he is oblivious or because he just doesn't care. I'm not sure which is worse.

Seriously, you don't expect your AD to make sure recruits making official visits are on the list of official visitors? Or to make sure when handing out financial aid that all the required approvals have been received?

That's just the stuff on that list in the post above, and that's basic stuff that anyone without a brain knows you need to abide by. If your coaches can't follow rules as simple as that, fire them.

Yeah, a lot of these rules are whatever, but it's pretty pathetic that an organization with as much money and bureaucracy as OSU can't figure out and follow really simple rules.

There are thousands of rules in the NCAA guidebook. Not every coach and every employee and every assistant and every player and every teacher and every tutor and every volunteer and every parent and every friend is going to know all of the thousands of rules the NCAA has out there.

On top of that, lots of those rules are vague and open for interpretation.

There are thousands of rules in the NCAA guidebook. Not every coach and every employee and every assistant and every player and every teacher and every tutor and every volunteer and every parent and every friend is going to know all of the thousands of rules the NCAA has out there.

On top of that, lots of those rules are vague and open for interpretation.

These are nothing, for any school. If that is ALL the violations for OSU for last year, I'd imagine this is the cleanest the sheet has been in awhile. As mentioned in a previous article, a D1 program averages FORTY minor violations a year. We don't hear about them, they aren't made public. Every school has had "basic stuff that anyone without a brain knows you need to abide by" in their violations, most probably this year.

Matt McGloin officially named the starter for Penn State. The guy who punched him before the bowl game, Curtis Drake, has also been kicked off the team for undisclosed reasons. I had heard he was struggling with academics but its probably a continuation of the pre-game incident from the bowl.